Tampa Bay Times

I have been a life long reader of the St. Petersburg times. I love the print version and thought I would never be like reading the paper on an iPad. Due to the economic downturn caused by COVID-19 the St. Pete Times suspended home delivery, except on Wednesday and Sunday. I have been forced to adapt and at first I hated it. But after a month, I have to say that I prefer newspaper on the iPad. Mainly because it’s easier. You click on an article and it’s right in front of you. Not at the top of the page or at the crease and the inevitable second part is there also. The Sunday Times(if you have home delivery) comes with a printed supplement that has all of the puzzles for the week. This was an A++ reason for my enjoying the e-paper. So to sum it up, I love it and don’t see any reason to return daily delivery.

The good: Great investigative reporting, general news and sports reporting. Editorial content is insightful, thought provoking and balanced. The not so good: This may seem trivial to you but the bags used to protect the paper on the two delivery days are terrible- flimsy and always tear when they hit the driveway. Paper is ruined if there are wet conditions. Our parents were carriers of the St. Petersburg Times for 30 years so we appreciate what is required to deliver the paper in all conditions. We still enjoy holding and reading a paper paper but understand the technological world we now live in and why newspapers everywhere are struggling. I would ask that, on the two days we get a real paper, more care would be taken to make sure it was in one piece and readable. At least until, inevitably, a virtual paper becomes our only option.

Tampa Bay Times is the world in my hands. Before, it required no electricity or internet connection, and it was complete. In a pandemic world, the newspaper and I have evolved, needing the internet to see the whole thing & electricity to charge my iPhone/iPad. I miss the thrill of waking to the bagged paper in my driveway every morning, but I get that on Wednesdays and Sundays, with advertisements, and coupons to clip. I don’t miss soggy newspapers on rainy days, and newsprint on my hands, or wrestling with the pages in cramped corners. I’m grateful for a compact version in my hands, with print that can be blown up and seen without reading glasses. I miss the daily puzzles, but I’m thankful for a week’s supply delivered every Sunday. I’ve adjusted to screenshots of things I want to keep instead of ripping stories out, sharing them, or misplacing them for years to come. Instead of reading the paper all at once, I’m spending more time with it - clicking on internet links for more information, taking screenshots of comics to share on social media or in texts and emails, and reading stories to their ends by clicking on the linke to the pages on which they are continued. The paper may never return to its 7-day delivery routine, but I will always return to your newspaper, its journalists, and its loyal advertisers, as I have since 1979 when I could afford an annual subscription. Before then, I relied on the library or a friend to read you daily. As long as you print the news, I’ll subscribe and read what you print.